Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems are known to those of ordinary skill in the art. In a MIMO system, a stream of bits is demultiplexed into a predetermined number of substreams. Each substream is sent out over a different antenna. The signals get mixed through the wireless channel. Signal processing is applied to the signals at the set of receive antennas to unscramble the data. The unscrambled data streams are multiplexed into the original high rate bit stream. In such systems, only a portion (e.g., if three substreams were used, only one third) of the spectrum, which would normally have been required is actually used.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is known to those of ordinary skill in the art. OFDM is a modulation technique useful for transmitting large amounts of data over a radio wave. The OFDM technique modulates multiple carriers at different frequencies with the same symbol rate such that the signals can be recovered without mutual interference. The receiver acquires the signal, digitizes the acquired signal, and performs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the digitized signal to get back to the frequency domain. The modulation is then recovered on each carrier. This technique results in a large amount of data being transmitted in a relatively small bandwidth.
The MIMO systems provide high spectral efficiency. Multiple transmit multiple receive antenna links increase the capacity of MIMO and MIMO OFDM systems. However, the implementation of high spectral efficiency is difficult due to the complexity of the systems and the resultant high costs.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a method of selecting receive antennas for MIMO and MIMO OFDM systems, which reduces the cost and complexity of the MIMO and MIMO OFDM receivers.